Flying the Flag explained

Show Name:Flying the Flag
Format:Comedy drama
Runtime:30 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Language:English
Home Station:BBC Radio 4
Starring:Dinsdale Landen
Peter Acre
Moir Leslie
Creator:Alex Shearer
Producer:Pete Atkin
Neil Cargill
First Aired:20 April 1987
Last Aired:4 August 1992
Num Series:4
Num Episodes:28
Audio Format:Stereophonic sound

Flying the Flag was a BBC radio sitcom set in a British embassy in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. It ran for four series, aired from 1987 to 1992, which have been repeated numerous times.

Synopsis

Created during the Cold War, this BBC Radio 4 sitcom chronicled the vagaries of diplomatic life in a fictitious eastern-bloc country. Dinsdale Landen starred as the British ambassador, with Peter Acre (as First Secretary William Frost) and Moir Leslie (as Helen Waterson, the embassy's typist and secretary) as his assistants, and Stephen Greif as the US Ambassador.

Later series moved with the times as the country embraced perestroika.

Cast

Regular Cast

Production

Episode list

SeriesEpisodeTitleFirst broadcastAdditional cast
11Favours20 April 1987Brown - Milton Johns, Bryant - Stuart Organ
2Weather Problems27 April 1987Yakov Korovin - Michael Bilton, Mikhail Korovin - Jonathan Kydd
3Notes From The Underground4 May 1987Yakov Korovin - Michael Bilton, Eugenia - Sue Broomfield
4Compromising Positions11 May 1987Mrs Poonskey - Margaret Ward
5Here In The Western World18 May 1987Yakov Korovin - Michael Bilton, Mikhail Korovin - Jonathan Kydd
6Spy Story25 May 1987Mrs Newton - Susie Brann, George Summers - Peter Howell
21The Bread And Butter10 March 1988Harris - Stephen Rashbrook
2The Space Race17 March 1988Olaf - David Goodland
3A Tooth For A Tooth24 March 1988
4The Opium Of The People31 March 1988Morris - John Baddely
5No Sudden Moves7 April 1988Keith - Richard Pearce
6Political Flu14 April 1988Shelkov - Paul Gregory, Nesterov - Peter Craze
7A Taste Of Democracy21 April 1988Frank Burton MP - Alan Dudley, Gerald Calder-Browne MP - Richard Tate
8Submarine Diplomacy28 April 1988Captain Warner - David Goodland
31Whose Rubbish Is It Anyway?20 November 1990
2Our Own Correspondent27 November 1990Henry Treebling - John Grieve
3The Comrade Connection4 December 1990
4A Loss Of Marbles11 December 1990
5Cool Heads18 December 1990Hutchins - Norman Bird
6Cultural Exchange25 December 1990Grub - Julian Dutton
41Spiritual Values16 June 1992
2In Custody23 June 1992
3As Unequal As Others30 June 1992
4Little Extras7 July 1992Duncan Bridges - Peter Whitman
5Endangered Species14 July 1992
6No Special Treatment21 July 1992
7The Pretenders28 July 1992Sharon - Elaine Lordan, Dave - Simon Schatzberger
8End Of Term4 August 1992

See also